Data Skills vs. Analytical and Influencing Skills: A Holistic View of Analytics Success

When people hear the term “data analytics,” they often picture technical skills: working with data, processing it, and running statistical tests. Many professionals and organizations still approach analytics with the belief that data skills alone are enough to create value. Yet, despite significant investments in tools and training, they continue to struggle with turning data into actionable insights that drive outcomes.

At FYT Consulting, we take a different view. While data skills are undoubtedly critical in the analytics value chain, focusing solely on these technical capabilities presents an incomplete picture of what it takes to succeed. To unlock the true potential of data analytics, two other skillsets must be emphasized: analytical skills and influencing skills.

Data Skills: The Foundation

Data skills form the technical bedrock of analytics. These skills ensure data is handled effectively and include the ability to:

Extract and Process Data: Collecting, cleaning, and organizing data for analysis.
Transform and Manage Data: Structuring and storing data for usability and reliability.
Test Hypotheses: Using statistical methods to confirm or refute assumptions.

These technical capabilities are crucial—they ensure the data is accurate, comprehensive, and ready for analysis. However, data alone doesn’t lead to better decisions or actions. That’s where analytical skills come in.

Analytical Skills: Turning Data into Actionable Insights

Analytical skills are the ability to derive meaning from data and translate it into actionable recommendations. At FYT Consulting, we view these skills as the backbone of effective decision-making, built on both practical experience and critical thinking.

Key aspects of analytical skills include:

Asking the Right Questions: Framing problems in a way that data can address them effectively.
Interpreting Analytical Outcomes: Understanding the story that patterns, trends, and anomalies in the data reveal.
Generating Actionable Options: Proposing realistic and impactful recommendations based on findings.

Without analytical skills, even the most advanced data analyses fail to provide clear direction. This skillset ensures insights are relevant, logical, and rooted in the bigger picture of organizational goals.

Influencing Skills: Bridging the Final Mile

Even with the best data and analysis, many analytics projects fail to deliver value. Why? Because the final, most critical mile is often overlooked: influencing stakeholders to act on the insights.

Influencing skills are about communication and consensus-building—the ability to translate insights into a narrative that resonates with decision-makers and inspires action.

This includes:

Telling a Concise, Coherent, and Compelling Data Story: Presenting insights in a way that highlights key issues and their implications.
Building Consensus: Ensuring stakeholders understand and align on the proposed options.
Navigating Resistance: Addressing concerns and persuading leaders to take action.

These skills are often the deciding factor between analysis that sits in a report and analysis that drives meaningful change. At FYT Consulting, we see influencing skills as the missing link in many analytics efforts.

The Interplay Between These Skills

To achieve success in analytics, data skills, analytical skills, and influencing skills must work together.

Data Skills Ensure Accuracy: Reliable and well-prepared data is the foundation of all analytics efforts.
Analytical Skills Provide Clarity: These skills turn data into insights that address the right questions and propose actionable solutions.
Influencing Skills Deliver Impact: Persuading stakeholders to act on insights closes the loop, turning analysis into outcomes.

Why Many Organizations Struggle

Many organizations over-invest in data skills while overlooking the importance of analytical and influencing skills. This imbalance leads to common pitfalls, including:

Data Overload: Collecting and analyzing vast amounts of data without clear questions or outcomes in mind.
Analysis Paralysis: Generating insights that lack practical application or fail to drive decisions.
Stakeholder Resistance: Presenting findings without the communication skills needed to inspire action or alignment.

By shifting the focus to a more holistic approach—encompassing all three skillsets—organizations can significantly increase the value derived from their analytics investments.

Conclusion: The FYT Consulting Approach

At FYT Consulting, we believe data analytics is about more than technical expertise. To succeed, professionals and organizations must embrace a broader set of capabilities:

Data Skills to prepare and process reliable data.
Analytical Skills to ask the right questions, interpret findings, and propose actionable solutions.
Influencing Skills to tell a compelling story, build consensus, and drive action.

Data skills might get you started, but analytical and influencing skills are what take you the final mile, delivering real value to your organization. By developing all three, you can transform analytics from a technical exercise into a strategic asset.

Remember: Data skills ensure accuracy, analytical skills ensure clarity, and influencing skills ensure impact. Together, they turn information into innovation and insights into action. Contact FYT Consulting to see how we can help build these 3 crucial skills to advance your organization’s data agenda.